Kentucky residents aren’t eligible for $500 refund checks from federal government. Here’s why.
Nearly 1 million Americans will receive $500 refund checks from the Trump administration, but Kentuckians will not be part of it, Lillian Metzmeier reports for the Louisville Courier Journal.
The payments will go to people who bought their health insurance through HealthCare.gov, the federally run Affordable Care Act marketplace. To be eligible, the consumer must have paid the full cost of their premiums without receiving federal premium tax credits or other financial assistance.
That’s because Kentucky operates its own ACA marketplace, Kynect, and the federal government did not collect user fees from Kentucky residents, Metzmeier reports.
President Trump has said the payments are the result of an overcharge made by the Biden administration.
“For years, the Biden administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov,” Trump wrote in a letter sent with the refunds, which Business Insider printed in full.
The checks, along with Trump’s letter, will go out to more than 950,000 Americans across 30 states that use the federal exchange for its ACA marketplace. But Americans in the 20 other states, including Kentucky, are not eligible for the refund checks.